American auto giant General Motors (GM) is recalling a whopping 193,652 sports utility vehicles (SUVs) from model years 2006 and 2007 to fix a technical glitch that can cause an electrical short and the resulting fire.

The massive recall affects a number of brands, including the Chevrolet Trailblazer, Saab 9-7x, GMC Envoy and Isuzu Ascender SUVs. Of the total number of recalled vehicles, most are in the United States.

With the world's biggest automaker General Motors (GM) having recently announced its decision to `unfriend' Facebook because it feels that Facebook ads are apparently not effective in converting the social network's users into customers, analysts are of the opinion that the GM defection will make its harder for Facebook to make a bull case for revenue growth.

The GM decision to discontinue its Facebook advertising comes at a time when the social network is coming up with its initial public offering (IPO), which will help the company raise nearly $16 billion.

A routine General Motors' (GM) review of `how' and `where' the automaker spends its marketing dollars has, according to the information shared by GM spokesman Tom Henderson, prompted the bigwig auto company to decided against advertising on Facebook social network.

With the routine review apparently revealing that GM's $10 million annual spending on Facebook advertising was having hardly any impact on consumers, the automaker - which incidentally is the third-ranking advertiser in the US
- had decided to discontinue its Facebook ads.

On Friday, the General Motors (GM) product chief Mary Barra told the Automotive Press Association that the engineers at the company are trying to ascertain the cause of the two post-crash-test fires in the lithium-ion battery of the Chevrolet Volt; and that notable design changes could be made to the plug-in car's battery in order to make it "more robust."

Announcing a rare move on Thursday, General Motors (GM) said that it will buy back its Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid vehicles from unsatisfied customers who are concerned about the `fire risk' factor being associated with the car.

Acclaimed automaker General Motors has announced that it would introduce a 5-door 2011 Chevy Cruze hatchback at the 2010 Paris Motor Show.

The Chevy Cruze hatchback, which is about the size of a Honda Civic or Ford Focus, will go on sale in Europe next year.

The company also announced that five sedan models of the 2011 Chevy Cruze would be introduced this month to the domestic market. General Motors’ North America president Mark Reuss along with Ohio Governor Ted Strickland will unveil the Cruze on Wednesday. The Cruze will hit the US showrooms later this month.

As told by some sources, General Motors Co. along with its IPO offering has decided to sell a fraction of its stock to interested buyers who are willing to take significant stakes in the Company.

The selling of the part of stock is nothing but a methodology to illustrate that the IPO offer is backed by major investors. The plan is all prepared with the GM and will be carried on as preferred offering, as per the information provided by person familiar with the matter.

General Motors, on Tuesday, informed that it was recalling 243,000 crossover vehicles in order to check a trouble with rear seat belts that could face a problem with the bolting of the belt, thus, putting one in danger.

The called in recall covers the 2009 and 2010 Chevrolet Traverse, Buick Enclave, Saturn Outlook and GMC Acadia.

Instead of putting General Motors workers back into business, the Union Auto Workers (UAW) concluded the Sunday meeting, which was held in Indianapolis, Indiana, with hundreds of jobs suspended and no news of their revival yet. The meeting ended with the decision that the business in the General Motor local plant will be put to a halt before the stipulated time, which is next year.

As per some reports obtained on Wednesday, General Motors might go ahead and file an initial public offering of stock as early as Friday.

Chief Executive Officer of the firm, Edward Whitcare, had earlier said that the auto manufacturer would file for its return to the stock market in the most recent upcoming days.

The firm's insolvency that had been sponsored by the U. S. Treasury Department in the previous summer, with more than $50 billion in loans.

An IPO could help the Government to initiate the sales process of its stake in a number of months as per the stated report.

On Thursday, Ed Whitacre, Chief Executive, General Motors announced at the Center for Automotive Research's annual industry conference that they want to shun the Government assistance and again wants to make GM an independent private entity.

Near in the future, the Company will come up with its IPO to raise funds to relieve the bailout provided by the Government in the form of 61% equity stake valuing $43 billion, which changed GM from a private Company to a public Company.

Market analysts said that General Motors Co. was successful in convincing a few purchasers to go ahead and buy the Chevrolet Volt after the buyers were informed about the $41,000 cost that they would need to bear and also the firm’s three-year, $350 per month lease proposal on Tuesday.

The new lease makes sure that the Volt is priced with its most comparable competitor, which is the Nissan Leaf, where a buyer is offered the car at a lease deal of $349.

General Motors Co.’s electric car, Chevy Volt will be sold in New York City and Austin and the two will be the first cities to sell the vehicle.

It was announced by the auto major on Thursday, when it was also stated that it plans to sell 10,000 Chevrolet Volts by the end of 2011. This declaration was made for the first time, when the Company presented its production scheme for the electrical motor.

When GM was spluttering in the direction of crumpling last year, it was difficult to notice how the U. S. auto market ruler could continue vending cars, and how it could one day vend itself as a success tale to shareholders.

But nearly a year after surfacing from a detested Government-financed insolvency, GM is moving in the direction of a stock list, which can bring paper proceeds to U. S. taxpayers and a significant political victory for the Obama Government.

As has been confirmed by the parent company General Motors, its Saab division, the struggling Swedish carmaker which is on the verge of a shutdown, might just be able to survive, thanks to the new and improved takeover offer which has been thrown its way by the Dutch sports car manufacturer, Spyker.

On Friday, GM managed to spark much dismay in Scandinavia by announcing that it is looking to permanently shut down Saab, but today confirmed that the announcement might have to be revisited on account of the new offer.